SPOZZ Books

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The old "yaller" shirt

Ray Humphreys

This Western short story follows Thad Sowers, a broncho buster with the John O’Day Traveling Rodeo Circus, who keeps wearing an old yellow silk shirt despite his boss’s complaints. John O’Day wants him to replace it before the afternoon performance in Colorado, but Thad’s attachment to the shirt is tied up with his feelings about June O’Day, the owner’s daughter. The story centers on the tension between Thad, his employer, and the rodeo setting as the show prepares to go on.

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On the dodge

Will James

A drifting cowboy at the Arrow Springs cow-camp loses his buckskin horse after hearing shots in the night and follows the tracks of the thief. His search leads him into the hands of a sheriff’s party that mistakes him for a wanted man connected to a bank robbery and murder, relying on his appearance, his horse, and the trail against him. The story follows his arrest and uneasy escort toward town as he tries to explain where he was and why he is on the trail.

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Kaspar Krumbholtz

Herman Anders Krüger

Der Roman setzt an einem Samstagabend in der Tramberger Knabenanstalt ein, wo sich die Lehrerschaft zum gewohnten Teeabend im Konferenzzimmer versammelt. In lockerer, oft spöttischer Unterhaltung treten die verschiedenen Lehrer mit ihren Eigenarten hervor, besonders der gestrenge Schlegelmeyer sowie die Kollegen Kratt, Knortz und Muffke. Der Ausschnitt zeigt vor allem den Kameradschaftston, die Rangordnung und den Alltag dieser Internatswelt unmittelbar vor dem Ende der Osterferien.

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Wenn ich die Sonne grüße ...

Elisabeth v. Maltzahn

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Jay Bird's judgement

W. C. Tuttle

This Western short story follows Chuck Warner as he hauls the Cross J mail, grumbles about mail-order catalogs, and brings letters back to the ranch. His conversations with the postmaster and Doc Milliken center on ranch foreman J. B. Whittaker, who is overworked, short of a cook, and urged toward marriage by a blunt letter. The ranch’s hard cooking, the men’s banter, and Chuck’s meddling in J. B.’s correspondence drive the situation.

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Nina's peril

Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

Set in New York and a coastal estate, the story follows a young woman whose beauty is marked by deep suffering and a desperate resolve. On a wild winter night, she enters a drug store seeking laudanum, and the clerk watches in horror as she takes the poison and vanishes into the dark streets. The narrative then turns back to her earlier life, showing her on a gray shore waiting again for a ship that never arrives, accompanied only by her loyal Newfoundland dog.

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Quer durch Uganda

Rudolf Kmunke

Das Buch schildert eine Forschungsreise in Zentralafrika von 1911/12 mit dem Ziel, den Elgonkrater und bislang kaum betroffene Gebiete Ugandas zu erkunden. Der Verfasser beschreibt den Entschluss zur Expedition, die gewählte Route über Jinja und Mbale sowie die geplanten naturkundlichen, geografischen und ethnologischen Arbeiten. Zugleich kündigt er an, die Reise anhand von Aufzeichnungen, Fotografien, Karten und Messungen darzustellen.

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The devil in a nunnery, and other mediaeval tales

Francis Oscar Mann

Set in medieval Buckinghamshire, this book opens with a vivid account of the county’s roads, castles, abbeys, pilgrims, and religious life. It then turns to a nunnery at Maids Moreton, where the sisters follow a strict routine of prayer, reading, gardening, and household work under their abbess. Their quiet order is interrupted when a manciple announces a young pilgrim at the gate, prompting discussion about whether he should be admitted for food and shelter.

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A little girl in tears

Ellis Parker Butler

Morley Smith is a middle-aged clubman in New York whose comfortable, sheltered life leaves him restless for excitement. After a first improvised adventure had given him a taste for danger, he follows that impulse again one drizzly night and takes a taxi to the East Side. There he enters a tenement, where a young, tearful girl mistakes him for an undertaker and the situation becomes awkwardly uncertain.

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I buy me couple horses

W. C. Tuttle

A narrator decides to move where he can keep a couple of horses, but horse sellers quickly turn up with all kinds of animals and claims about their value. After testing several, he eventually buys one that seems perfect, only to discover it is a violent wrecking horse that damages his stable and neighboring property. The story follows his attempts to manage the animal while other horse offers continue to arrive.

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Love's crucifix

Francesco Petrarca

This book presents English renderings of Petrarch’s sonnets, with attention to the Tuscan language that made his work central to Italian literary history. It reflects on the difficulty of translating his compact verse into English and on the poet’s sincerity of feeling. The poems are also discussed through the figure of Laura, whose beauty, silence, death, and the dream-like conventions of the love sequence shape Petrarch’s long devotion.

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From the Hebrides to the Himalayas, vol. 1 [of 2]

C. F. Gordon Cumming

This volume presents a travel narrative compiled from letters and journals, describing journeys from the Hebrides to India and the Himalayas. The author contrasts common British ideas of India with her own experience of prolonged travel, little discomfort, and varied scenery, while also noting memories of Scottish places such as Skye and the Mull of Cantyre. It is framed as a collection of wandering impressions and observations rather than a tightly connected account.

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The trey of spades

W. C. Tuttle

Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens are introduced riding together across the Thunder rangeland, a broad cattle country cut by the Bitter River and framed by the Thunder Mountains. As they survey the land, Hashknife sees it as the kind of open range they have long wanted, while Sleepy is more skeptical but willing to follow. The two talk about settling down, building a small home and brand, and trying to leave other people’s troubles alone as they head into the country below.

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Helped by a horse doctor

W. C. Tuttle

A Western short story set in Piperock, Montana, follows Ike Harper as he watches his partner Magpie Simpkins in a tense encounter with a fat stranger who appears to be using hypnotism. Ike interrupts the scene, later gets injured, and consults the horse doctor Doc Milliken, who gives his own comic explanation of the incident. The story then moves through Piperock talk of vigilance, secret societies, and the Loyal Legion of Lizards, with Ike, Magpie, Dirty Shirt Jones, and Judge Steele trading boasts and arguments.

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The three wise men

Ernest Haycox

Set in the dwindling desert town of Calent, the story centers on the marshal, mayor, and judge as they gather to play poker in the room above the old bar. Their banter over cards and liquor reveals how loosely the town’s power is exercised, even as they speak about law enforcement, public works, and a former woman of the town, Peg Nell, whose change in circumstances has become a subject of suspicion. The scene suggests a comic but sharp look at local politics, vice, and authority among the town’s self-styled leaders.